/m/obit

Reader Comments and Retorts

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

Me too. As a kid I remember getting a book from the elementary school library, "All Star Baseball Players" or something, and read it a dozen times. The image of Scott in his Brewers hat is the strongest one in my memory, even moreso than his scowling, Fu Manchu'd visage on the '79 Topps card I liked so much.

I always think of him as a Yankee, and a rather portly one at that, because 1979 is the year I started following baseball. I would never have guessed he'd won 6 gold gloves! He had a pretty great career and I think he's the author of a funny quote of which I'll have to roughly paraphrase as upon seeing he was hitting 6th one day he complained that his mother never looked farther down than fifth in the box score so she wouldn't know he'd been in the lineup. RIP Boomer.

Man, Boomer was one of my favorites. Such a fun player to watch, from that big swing to the slick way he played first base. He looked like a player who would be a butcher at first, but then you saw how smoothly he moved, how good his footwork was, and how soft his hands were.

He was also one of the most distinctive players in terms of how he "accessorized," wearing the helmet while playing first base and sporting that necklace of "second basemen's teeth."

I believe Scott was also responsible for the term "dialing nine" meaning a home run. In hotel rooms, you used to have to dial nine for long distance.

He also popularized "taters."

I don't know how true this is, because I can't find any reference anywhere, but my dad said he used to write messages in the dirt for opposing baserunners. When Reggie got to first one day, he just wrote "$."

What was the deal with his 1968 season? Playing through injuries? Baseball Digest used to run lists of the biggest one-season batting average declines of all time, and George's .303 in 1967 to .171 in 1968 usually led them. And it wasn't a BA mirage or because everybody hit terribly in '68, either -- his OPS+ in '67 was 138, and 40 a year later...

He was in his first stint with the Red Sox when I started following baseball, and seeing as how I was a first baseman (sort of) in little league and liked slick fielding first basemen, he was one of my early favorite players. Always looked menacing at the plate. I remember that necklace, too!
RIP George.

Two things struck me about Scott. #1, he had the cajones, if there was a runner on second and less than two outs and the ball was hit sharply to him on the ground, to throw over to third for the tag out rather than take the easy one by stepping on first. And I never saw him screw it up, he always got his out. Second, his rarified ability to judge the hop on a bad throw, no matter how far in front of him it landed.

What was the deal with his 1968 season? Playing through injuries? Baseball Digest used to run lists of the biggest one-season batting average declines of all time, and George's .303 in 1967 to .171 in 1968 usually led them. And it wasn't a BA mirage or because everybody hit terribly in '68, either -- his OPS+ in '67 was 138, and 40 a year later...

The SABR bio doesn't mention any specific injuries, just that he started the season in a terrible slump and never broke out of it.

To reiterate the many posts above, Boomer was just fun to watch. For those of us over the age of 40+, you wouldn't think a dude that large could be that good. I think what appealed to the "everyman" was that Boomer looked like everyone's dad or the average joe.

Nearly every team made some move of significance. Prospects were usually only an afterthought, usually it was talent for talent. No long term contracts or free agency back then of course. Different era.

Many of these trades wound up being extremely lopsided. Only a few really helped both teams - Allen/John, Cardenl/Colborn, Holtzman/Monday eventually. Neither Scott trade was good for the Red Sox. The first one was less bad, but it caused them to make the Cater/Lyle trade later on, so it had unexpected repercussions.

Boomer hit the 1st MLB homer I can remember seeing in person, 1975 against the Rangers. One thing the Brewers did right this year is they put out a Boomer bobble head in April, when he was still with us. RIP.

Geez, no kidding. That offseason probably spoiled me as a kid; it followed what I'm pretty sure was my first full season of following the game. (Not sure when I started paying attention the previous year, but definitely in time to catch the Rose-Fosse collision in the All Star game.)

I remembered him, but I got crap for mentioning Duffy non-derisvely some time ago, so I thought better of bringing him up. Duffy was a regular for 6 years, and it's not like they had anyone better to play. It seems like Duffy was better than Jack Heideman, but I never really saw either of them play.

I thought of George Scott when there was all the stuff about whether Puig should be on the All-Star team. In Scott's rookie year in 1966, he hit 10 home runs in the first 20 games, drawing national attention. The players voted him to start the ASG, but by the time of the game he had gone into a major slump.

He also almost pulled off what would have been a great play when he struck out with two outs and the other team left the field, not realizing that the umpire had ruled that the catcher hadn't caught the ball. Scott circled the bases but was tagged out at home.

George Scott, according to his biographer, never got over the bitterness he felt over the fact that Major League Baseball, and the Red Sox in particular, never offered him a job when his playing days were over -- as an instructor, a coach or a manager. Coupled with the slights he endured as a young player in what he perceived as a racially insensitive organization (one of his minor league teams, believing it a harmless prank, once came to his hotel room dressed like Ku Klux Klan members) -- this child of the segregated Mississippi Delta was burdened by sorrows when he died in Greenville, Miss., in the home he built for his mother back in that magical year, 1967.

Lots of info about Scott's career, including what may have been a rather difficult relationship with Manager Dick Williams. Break the BBTF code, RTFA.